


With a Hop and a Skip

by I_Mushi



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Ivy - Freeform, Multiple Doctors (Doctor Who), Time Traveling Companion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-01-17 01:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 13,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12354408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Mushi/pseuds/I_Mushi
Summary: Ivy was one of the First Doctor's companions, except she fell into the Time Vortex. Now she "pops" into the Tardis at random times and goes on adventures with a lot of Doctors while finding a way to stop popping forever.





	1. A Hop & A Skip (1st Jump, 1st - 11th)

**Author's Note:**

> I got this idea when we first met River with Ten. The idea of River's timeline not matching the Doctor's but crossing his sometimes set my imagination off, and even though I'm disappointed by the direction her character was taken in (especially because she's so sassy and cool), I wrote my own version of it. I've never seen the classic Doctor Who so you won't see much of those early Doctors, but we'll be seeing Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve a lot.

She was wearing a shimmery red dress and white gloves pulled neatly up to the elbows, hair coiffed and styled to match Garbalian fashion in the year 4735—remarkably similar to the American 1920s except for the codfish—and low heels. This was the kind of outfit that shouldn't be mussed up, but unfortunately it was covered in pink, brown, and white dust, and her hairstyle was starting to droop and frizz. In all it was a very strange outfit to wear whilst laying on the floor.

It took a few blinks to realize she was indeed on the floor when she saw the concentric circle of lights on the ceiling. Turning her head she saw the ground was translucent and blue, but the room itself was bathed in orange light with steps leading down to a pitted wall with a spherical pattern that was only slightly familiar.

It was the Tardis. But different.

"Where am I?" Ivy breathed, standing up slowly. The console looked sharper and busier, covered in strange knobs and switches both familiar and not, and there was a tall rotor similar to the one she remembered. The rest of the room was very different though. There were steps up and down, it was colorful with more odds and ends, and there were a lot more protruding things.

"—and that, Ponds, is why you never forage in the woodlands of Rasleton. Now if you want those brambles out of your hair—and other places—then you'll need an ointment I've got in the—oh! Is that you Ivy?"

Ivy turned around to face a floppy-haired, bowtie wearing man whose delighted expression quickly turned somber at the sight of her.

"I haven't seen that red dress in a very long time," he murmured to himself.

The redhead behind him stepped closer to the other man in the untucked button-up and whispered loudly, "How come he doesn't seem surprised some random person is in the Tardis?"

"A moment, Ponds. Ivy, are you quite alright?" the man in suspenders and tweed jacket asked, bounding up the stairs to stand in front of her. "I imagine you're very confused now."

"Where is the Doctor?" Ivy asked, looking around uncertainly at the three people. She didn't recognize them or this Tardis at all. A different Time Lord and Tardis then?

"I am the Doctor," the tweed-wearing man said very seriously. "You know me with a different face."

"How? The Doctor is… grandfatherly, with white hair, a coat, and silly plaid pants," she said hesitantly, looking him over. The face and mannerisms were very different, even if this other Time Lord also had an off-kilter sense of fashion.

"Oh well," he adjusted his bowtie. "You haven't seen the celery yet."

"I don't understand. How are you— You can't be him."

"I've regenerated a few times since you traveled with me. Ten times, to be exact."

"Regenerated?"

"Death cheating trick, changes everything physical and a little mental, but it's not important. Do you know what happened to you?"

"I was falling," she said slowly, remembering the feeling of utter terror when she didn't hit the floor but continued to fall. "I was in the Tardis with the Doctor and then…" she paused, straining to remember. The doors of the Tardis had been opened, the Doctor had been yelling for her, there'd been all those other angry Time Lords, and then… swirling eddies of light; her head splitting open and crushing inward all at once; sound visibly leaving her mouth, the smell of light all around her, walking on time…

"Stop, stop, STOP!" the Doctor yelled, shaking Ivy hard. "You mustn't think about it. Forget it ever happened. The vortex is too much for your mind and you must not remember it. Can you do that for me?"

She sat down on the jumpseat shakily and nodded her head. This Doctor started to pace, waving his hands around spasmodically. Something about the hurried movements and the tone of voice reminded her very much of her Doctor, even if she still didn't believe this young, restless guy was the same man. He wasn't nearly so grouchy.

"What happened is, well, you fell into the time vortex. The hows and whys I'm not sure, and I'm not sure why that is, in fact, but you did." He stopped pacing long enough to grasp her hands and look at her with a mournful expression that seemed strange on such a youthful face. "I'm so very sorry Ivy. I never thought I'd have to explain this but, well, I suppose that's rather silly of me," he finished to himself. "Obviously this moment would happen. Just never supposed it'd be so… well so far."

"What?" she said at the same time as the two other people in the Tardis.

"What's going on?" the man said first. "How did she get here? And she knew you when you were old? What's this about cheating death?"

"Well this is a day for firsts," the Doctor said, tugging on his suspenders nervously.

"Rory, I'll explain regeneration, but I don't get the rest of it either," the girl said, her Scottish accent getting stronger, and she put one hand on her hip while looking at the Doctor expectantly.

He twisted in place for introductions, waving his hands quickly between them. "Ivy, this is Amy and Rory. Amy and Rory, this is Ivy, who is, well, a companion of mine, but from a long time ago and from the future."

"What?" they both said.

"Falling into the time vortex should have you killed you," the Doctor explained sadly, turning back to Ivy and ignoring Amy and Rory for the moment. "I don't understand how it didn't. But you've always been there, popping up from time to time in the Tardis. Ever since you fell."

"Popping up?" she asked, eyes going wide. "What do you mean popping up?"

The Doctor rocked back on his heels awkwardly. "Well, from what I do understand, you locked on to the Tardis somehow. And the Tardis exists everywhen and everywhere at once because timey-wimey stuff. I'm not sure how the connection works exactly, but because the Tardis is everywhere and when at once, you can appear any time and place inside it. No rhyme or rhythm to it, as the humans say."

"So I… popped here? From the old Tardis?"

"Yes," he said gravely. "And from the other me. You appeared here as the first 'jump' if you'd like, from when you fell." He hesitated, and his fingers curled away from her almost like he could stop the impact of his words. "You've been jumping ever since."

"Then what about my home? My brother?"

"We tried once to go, back with my third regeneration, but it didn't work so well. I wouldn't call you a paradox, but more of an… anomaly." He visibly winced at the word.

"I-I don't—"

"We still travel!" he added before any waterworks or panicking could happen. Ivy was looking very overwhelmed. "Just all out of order for me. So sometimes you've already met my new face and the new face hasn't met you, and sometimes you don't know what I've done the last hundred years and sometimes you do." He tried not to make it sound so bad, but Ivy's chin was wobbling dangerously.

"But that sounds awful!" she burst out, voice going very high on the last word. "Time's not the same for me anymore! You're saying I can't stay anywhere, just popping forever until I die! What happens if the Tardis is gone one day? Isn't there something you can do?! I just—I want…" and he was quite sure the words she said into her hands were my Doctor.

He carefully pulled her into his arms, awkwardly pressing her face to his thin chest. He wasn't the Doctor she remembered and yet he was the same man. He couldn't pretend he even remembered how his first body had acted anymore, but he was her closest friend—had to be, since he was, or rather would be, the only person she would consistently see. He squeezed her a bit tighter.

"I am the Doctor, Ivy—your Doctor. I know it's hard to believe. And time is linear for you, just a different linear from everyone else, just like me. I've known you for eleven different faces, and there's always a time with the Tardis. Everything exists at some point in time. Even if it's destroyed in the future it's there in the past. Usually." He smiled, but when he pulled back he saw that her eyes were red and swollen. "Come on now, I'll always be here in some way, maybe with a long scarf or really curly hair. Maybe I'll even be ginger or a girl and you'll know that when I'm complaining about being brunette again." That got a small hiccupping laugh out of her.

He smiled indulgently. "You always seemed to know me whenever I met you, and maybe that's because I tell you everything now or maybe that's because you just know me that well. You'd have to, if you'd seen me in as many ridiculous situations and clothes as you have."

"I haven't done any of that yet though," she said softly. "And I don't want to keep meeting new Doctors that I'll never get to know. I… I will see him again, with the topcoat and that tea cozy hat?"

He shook his head, feeling horrible guilt that he tried to push down. Ivy would become the most accepting person of every new face he had, but she had to start somewhere too.

"No, I'm afraid, you won't meet that me again." He paused for a moment before abruptly jumping up with an idea. "But the Tardis does like to keep a few pictures, and surely I've got one of me in that hat." He banged around on the console a bit before the screen above it stopped flashing Gallifreyan letters and switched to a black and white picture. "Ah yes, hat and scarf and that white hair. I do like scarves. Bowties are cool though," he mused before looking at Ivy expectantly.

She sounded a bit choked up as she laughed, touching the screen the Doctor had pulled down for her with his original face on it, the one marked by age and arrogance, clever-looking even as he scowled. She looked up at the unlined face next to her and couldn't see much of that old Doctor in him except in the eyes. They were wiser and older than her own Doctor's, but still touched by that manic desire to explore that he'd always had, even when he'd tried to hide it.

"Where did we first go?" she asked, just to be sure. It was hard to reconcile the face with the Doctor she'd met, but the way he talked and waved his hands around was almost familiar.

"Napaloo 3," he said promptly. "And you immediately got thrown in jail for wearing the symbol of the old royalty."

"It was a peace sign," Ivy said, waiting for the same comment he always made after she said that.

"Well the flower-covered design did confuse them."

She smiled at the old black and white picture of the Doctor, and then looked up at the new face. "I guess you could be him," she admitted, biting her lip.

"I know it's hard to imagine, especially since I look a tad younger than I did then—" Amy snorted "—but you'll understand. I'll show you all the faces you can expect to see and tell you a few of the big stories, that way you'll always look like you know more about me than I do, even when you're still catching up." He was trying to be upbeat for her, but the shock was starting to settle in. He was the Doctor, but he also wasn't. What had been minutes for her had been hundreds of years or more for him. She would never have a normal life again. She needed to sit down and process this.

"I need to go to my room. I need- I want to rest and, and think. Is it even still here?"

The rotor went up and down once. "Well of course it's still here, she says. The Tardis, that is. I might change the desktop and add in bunk beds every now and then, but she doesn't forget anything, not especially when you pop up all the time. First door on your second left past the kitchen and the clock room."

"Just like before," she said, looking out into the corridor. The Doctor smiled at her, but it wilted with worry as she left.

Amy and Rory came up the steps then, and Amy stepped up to the monitor to look at the picture more closely. "So, that's the first you? And she's one of your old companions? Who just pops up from time to time?"

"Literally," Rory added.

"Yes, yes, I'm surprised you haven't met her yet. Though I suppose while you're off gallivanting somewhere you've missed her. Met her once with this face. Countless times before." The Doctor was looking distractedly at the picture of his first self, zooming out so the whole body was visible. Those pants had been a horrible fashion choice, he decided, even if they'd been popular on Gallifrey at the time.

What was really catching his eye was the coat pocket with the gleam of gold peeking out. It was a fobwatch—and the original one, not the one he carried now and his previous regenerations sometimes wore. That original fobwatch had been the one to fall into the time vortex with Ivy. He'd entrusted it to her because he'd put some important, key memories inside it. Things that now the Doctor believed helped explain what had happened to Ivy. He'd kept an eye out for it ever since she'd fallen, but it was like searching for a needle in a universe made of haystacks.

"Well? You're gonna help her, right?" Amy said, cocking one hip out.

The Doctor whirled around. "Help her? I've tried for as long as I've known her, but never did figure anything about it out. Can't remember how she fell, the vortex analysis tools on Gallifrey were no help at all, the Tardis can't seem to pinpoint the connection, can't predict if her jumps will be forward or backward so real-time testing is impossible…" He leaned both hands on the console with his head down in an uncharacteristic position of surrender.

"So I take her on adventures just like I promised her. And actually," he said, lifting his head up again, "I should take her somewhere in that dress since she never did get to see Macbeth done by Hanarians. They look a bit like jellyfish but about seven feet tall. Ponds, why don't you, I don't know, go kiss or something." Invigorated by the plan, he jumped up the stairs two at a time and disappeared further into the Tardis.

Amy and Rory just looked at each other.

"We'll meet her later then," Amy said with finality. "For now we better take advantage of an empty Tardis."


	2. War Revelation (4th jump, 4th – 9th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy's first meeting with the 9th Doctor

Ivy blinked, and in one second she went from standing in the open air hall of the dance rooms of the Tardis (the fourth Doctor insisted he teach her how to dance some kind of seven-legged waltz) to facing a wall with… Dalek design?

Ivy jumped back like the wall had just morphed into an actual Dalek and banged into a coral strut.

"Oi! What're you making all that noise for?" yelled someone. Ivy stumbled around and saw a man with short-cropped hair wearing a leather jacket leaning over the console. He had his back to her, but there was a pile of wires at his feet and he seemed to have opened part of the console to fix. "Hand me that spanner Rose, the one with the yellow handle."

He held out one hand expectantly, nose still buried in the console.

"Doctor?" Ivy asked. If he was fixing the Tardis than it must be him, but she'd never met this regeneration before.

"Spanner," he repeated.

"…Doctor?"

"Yes? What?" He whirled around and a huge grin burst across his face, transforming an otherwise serious face into a startlingly happy one. "Ivy! Well I fixed that mobile you liked, the one with the ships that zoom off it. Now you won't be complaining about Platius III's moon banging on your head at night." He grinned at her, but Ivy just stared at him.

"Right," she said slowly.

"It's me, the Doctor," he said, getting up and walking over to her. "Don't recognize me then?"

Ivy shook her head.

"Well where've you come from? How many o' me have you met?"

"Your fourth, I think he said. And I guess I've met… three of you?"

"Ah," he said, realizing where her hesitation was coming from. This was early on for her. She hadn't bought and tried to fix a broken mobile yet. Or met many of his regenerations. He remembered meeting her at several points like this before, when she was still easily upset about the prospect of her life as a nomad in time. "What'd you think of him? Or rather me? Fourth me, that is. I was Lord President of Gallifrey in that body you know."

"President of Gallifrey?" Ivy gaped at him.

"Actually," he added, seeming to bounce in place proudly. "I was the 409th Lord President in my fifth regeneration too. Never took office, but they still counted me."

"Your fourth was president?" Ivy repeated. She was trying to square in her head the Doctor, who'd just taught her a seven-legged waltz and rewarded each good turn with a Jelly Baby, with the most powerful man in Gallifrey. "But he's a bit…" she hesitated, "I mean, you were a bit…" Ivy stopped though, not sure how to describe the Doctor when he wore a scarf twice as long as he was tall with an old-fashioned fedora and tapped his nose like it conveyed some wisdom and not his own bizarreness. In fact, this Doctor was plain compared to him so far.

"Yeah, I was a bit—Well I used to like scarves. Can't stand them now." He shrugged and picked up the yellow-tipped spanner. "Help me would you? Hold this." He handed her what looked like a surge protector where large and oblong plugs were connected, except that there were no outlets but suckers like an octopus instead. He sonicked it for a moment before rearranging some wires inside the console, then sonicked it again. He looked perfectly happy to leave her standing there like a piece of furniture.

"How come you've got Dalek patterns on your walls?" Ivy blurted out when the silence went on for too long. It felt very weird to just chat with a man that looked like a total stranger even if he wasn't. It was making her awkward.

"They're not _Dalek_ patterned!" he said hotly. "They're not globes and they don't stick out. Get your facts straight!"

"Sorry!" Ivy apologized, abashed and shocked at how quickly he'd gotten angry. "I didn't mean to offend, it's just with the colors…"

"What's a Dalek?" asked a blonde woman, wearing baggie jeans and a zip-up pink hoodie. She stepped gingerly over a loose pile of wiring as she crossed the room.

"Creature made of nothing but hate," the Doctor said summarily. "You're lucky you'll never see one."

Ivy glanced confused at the Doctor. She'd had one run-in with a Dalek, and she knew from that first meeting with the Eleventh Doctor that he'd had several more experiences with them. "What do you mean never see one?" Ivy asked.

"Because they're gone. All gone," he said shortly, crossing his arms and glowering for a second. Then he relaxed and the anger slipped away back to wherever it came from, but never far from the surface. "Ivy, this is Rose. She's traveling with me. Rose, this is Ivy. She's been popping in for a long time."

"Oh, um, hi," Rose said confusedly.

"I'm Ivy." She shifted the surge protector thing into her arms so she could offer her hand. The Doctor didn't seem inclined to explain any more than that. He had turned back to the wiring. "I traveled with the Doctor a long time ago and then there was an accident, and now I just sort of jump around in time. You might see me again but it might have been awhile for me." Ivy was getting pretty succinct at explaining her situation.

"Well, that sounds kind of fun, if exhausting," Rose said, clearly not sure how to respond to that. "You joining us then?"

"Yup, for a turn," Ivy replied, but she still had a question. "Doctor, what do you mean the Daleks are all gone?"

The sonic stopped making noise, but he didn't immediately turn around. "This really the first time you met me after the war?"

"The war?" Rose asked quietly, sitting in the jumpseat, her eyes wide. The Doctor stood up and leaned against the console, eyes hard as stone and shoulders heavy.

"Yeah. Between the Time Lords and the Daleks." He glanced at Ivy, nodding for just a second, but she didn't know why. "Eh, guess you haven't met… nevermind." He shook his head, crossed his legs and leaned against the Tardis, head bowed.

The expression on his face… It was a different face, but she'd seen that look before on the first Doctor. Then this was the same war. The one she'd seen in that awful, mistaken jump. And it _had_ happened.

"I killed them. All of them. Gallifrey burned and the Daleks with them." He said it flatly, like every ounce of emotion had been drained out of him by the sheer horror of what he'd done. And Ivy knew that was true, but she didn't know that all that had been left afterwards would be anger.

"I'm sorry," she said, because that's what the only thing she could think to say. Sorry it had happened. Sorry it had been him. Sorry for a lot of things.

"Me too." Then with a breath he turned around and started sonicking wires with a vengeance. Ivy and Rose watched him do this for several seconds before realizing he was not going to turn around and talk again.

"Um, Rose? Have you seen the, uh, pool?"

Rose was watching the Doctor with a jumble of emotions on her face, but she seemed to know better than to push. She glanced up and in a second she knew what Ivy was thinking. "Nah, I haven't yet. Is there a hot tub too?"

"Oh yeah," Ivy said immediately. "Pretty sure I can still find it, if the Tardis hasn't moved it. Keeps getting bigger inside, I swear." She and Rose quickly left to give the Doctor some space.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Rose said as soon as they were in the corridor.

"Well, it's like that every time I meet a new Doctor," she said. "Now hush, he can still hear us."

"A _new_ Doctor?" Rose asked, but Ivy led them down several corridors and peeked into two doors before opening one with a tropical themed hot tub, complete with ferns, invisible jets, and four squawking parrots Ivy was never sure were actually alive or not.

"Let's leave him be, huh?" Ivy suggested. Rose shot her a look, but Ivy was far too lost in memories from the first Doctor and everything that had happened since. It had been barely two weeks ago, even though it felt like a lifetime with all this jumping. No wonder this Doctor was so stark compared to the older ones. Who could be fantastical and eccentric after destroying two races?

"He had to do it, right?" Rose asked quietly, pulling on a conveniently placed bathing suit behind a screen and slipping into the water. "In the… the war?"

"If you'd ever met a Dalek you'd know he did," Ivy knew that was what the Doctor thought. Considering how much it had hurt him to do it, then and now, Ivy wasn't sure if that was the right answer.


	3. An Explanation (5th Jump, 15th - 8th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy meets a future self who explains a few things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the plot and no Doctor in this chapter. I tried to make the explanation as clear as possible and not dead boring, but might have failed on both fronts.

Ivy appeared again to yet another unfamiliar Tardis, the colors all wrong and everything but the shape of the console different. In the nearly half dozen jumps she'd made since falling into the vortex she hadn't met a single version of the Doctor twice or reappeared anywhere with a familiar face. She didn't want to turn around now as she heard someone walk into the room, the steps down to the console's platform creaking. She didn't want to see another unfamiliar man who called himself the Doctor.

"I need to be alone," Ivy said, covering her face with her hands. "I can't do this."

"Yes you can," said a female voice, and Ivy turned around surprised, not expecting the Doctor could turn into a woman, though she supposed she didn't know why he couldn't. Except it wasn't the Doctor at all, but herself, and she knew it as surely as if she was looking in a mirror. Except, of course, it was about ten times stranger to see oneself  _without_  a mirror.

"Me?" she squeaked, surprised.

"Yeah, it's us, or me, or whatever," the other Ivy said, smiling broadly. "I've been wondering when exactly this moment would come."

Both Ivys just looked at each other, but the younger one was outright gawping. She had clearly figured out how to do her hair better in the future, even if she was wearing a one-piece outfit with strange triangles of a color that were flickering like some kind of static. Hopefully that was fashionable at this point in time, because otherwise it was downright weird. Ivy also realized she had a tiny dimple on her left cheek when she made that concerned expression, which was a strange thing to learn by looking at a future incarnation of yourself.

"Where's the Doctor?" the younger Ivy finally asked, feeling overwhelmed for the nth time in as many days.

"Tinkering down near the engine room. But you won't meet her this time."

"But I will another time?" she asked herself mournfully, reminded again of how she didn't follow anyone else's linear timestream, not even the Doctor's. "And her? How am I meeting myself? Isn't that a paradox? Or if I'm popping forever then it was going to happen at some point, I suppose." She felt unaccountably angry and exhausted at once, which was strange and difficult to feel. She didn't know if she wanted to punch her older self for not being upset about this, or simply lay on the floor until she disappeared again.

"It'll be a paradox if we touch, but you're not popping forever," the older Ivy said, and the empathy in her voice was possibly the realest thing the other Ivy had ever heard. "It's going to be okay for you too, I promise."

"It can be fixed?" Ivy asked, caution mixed with wonder. "How? When?"

"You—us—whatever, are connected to the Tardis. It's the coral you were covered in when they threw us into the vortex. You can pop to any point in time between the birth and death of the Tardis," her other self explained, swinging herself into a high chair topped with a bicycle seat.

"The Tardis will die?"

"One day. I mean, she can't last forever, and neither can the Doctor, but don't worry, it's a good long while from this now, I hope." The other Ivy looked sad to say that, but considering that they were standing in the Tardis, that day yet to come. "If you were popping forever, you'd end up at every point in the Tardis' timestream. Literally every second."

"How is that possible?"

"Imagine the Doctor's timestream as a line. I know, I know, time doesn't actually work like that, but imagine it that way. Now imagine your timestream as a line below it and yourself as a dot on that line. When you pop you appear randomly at some point in the Doctor's timeline because your timelines aren't running parallel. Well, really it's the Tardis', but it's easier to use the Doctor's. You exist there for a few hours to a few days or even a week, and then pop back a little further along your timestream." The other Ivy sketched this diagram into the air with some kind of glowing pen that left the image floating, adding marks for each of the Doctor's regenerations.

—2nd—3rd—4th—5th—6th—7th—8th—IVY—9th—etc…

\----IVY----------------------------------------

"So as your timestream moves forward—which is non-linear to everything else—you pop to more and more random points in the Doctor's time." She added more x-marks along the Doctor's timeline at random regenerations. "If you did this forever, you'd eventually fill every second. Literally, if you experienced this like the Doctor does, as soon as you popped away from a point another you, maybe a later version or a past version, would appear. And then you might get situations like this, where two of you would appear at the same point in the Doctor's timeline, but be from two different points in your own timeline. But that's not what's happening, right?"

The younger Ivy had tentatively dropped into an airplane seat welded on the edge of the console platform and was staring at the diagram trying to make sense of it. "No, that's right. The Doctor doesn't see me sometimes for months, and I've never met myself before this."

"Exactly. Which means at some point in your timestream, you stop popping." The other Ivy put down the pen she'd been using to draw in the air. "Do you get it?"

Ivy stared at the diagram, but it was all rather confusing. "Wouldn't I also stop popping if I died of old age? And how does this all work if the Tardis is everywhen, as the Doctor told me? What do you mean by my non-linear timestream?"

Her other self frowned. "Have you noticed yourself getting older?"

Ivy shook her head. "It's only been a few weeks since I started though. I won't see much of a difference for years." Her voice tapered off into a whisper at the thought of  _years_  of hopping through time.

"Well, I can't give away too much but you're not obeying a lot of laws of time or physics, including aging. This'll make you feel better and worse, but you  _do_ age, eventually." She shrugged, and Ivy didn't even know how to absorb that. She wasn't aging but she would begin aging again? When she stopped popping? Had she stopped popping by this point in time, which was how this future self of her knew? She didn't get the chance to ask though as her other self continued on. "As for the everywhen and the Tardis, you can just appear anytime the Tardis is. It's not so much a where, even though it feels like different places. You're just appearing at a different point in time inside the Tardis. Basically, you don't exist in a place anymore, but in different times. And I've got a diagram for the non-linear timestream too." Her older self actually looked happy that she'd asked.

"You've been practicing this speech, haven't you?" The younger asked glumly. Hearing yourself say  _you don't exist in a place_  was going to send her into an existential crisis.

"Well, I realized when I recognized the new console room that a younger version of myself would be coming at some point, so then I had to prepare. The Doctor helped me hash out the details too." So saying, she lifted up her finger and started drawing again. "Stick with me for a little longer. So the first time we met the Doctor it was his first face, right? In that park when we caught him stealing water from a fire hydrant." And she drew a number one. "We traveled together and we were in the normal timestream. Then we fell into the vortex and we met him next in his eleventh, right?" She added an arrow and the number eleven. "When did we go next?"

"Whichever one had that question mark umbrella. I can't believe he actually carried that."

"The seventh then, and I know." Both Ivys snickered. "You haven't met the fifth one have you? He's got a few question marks on his clothes, and celery."

Ivy rolled her eyes, but didn't even ask.

"Anyway," the other one continued, putting a seven next to the eleven, "This is the order we know him in. We can keep doing this for hours, but I'm just gonna make it up for time's sake." The older Ivy drew arrows between each number in a line, adding in a random smattering of others until the diagram looked something like this:

1 --> 11 --> 7--> 5--> 2--> 12--> 9--> 15--> 3 --> …

"Okay, I think I'm getting this," Ivy said slowly. "This is linear for me."

"Yes, exactly," the other Ivy said excitedly. "For simplicity's sake, you're at the fifteenth Doctor now, so pretend yesterday you were with the ninth and tomorrow you'll be with the third. That's how your progression goes." She pointed at each number as she talked. "But for the Doctor and everyone else, he's meeting you at random points in your life, often many times in the same the same regeneration. So sometimes you've known him for a long time, you've been traveling with him for years, and sometimes you've barely met. The reverse is the same for you, since you're meeting him at random points in his life. That's what I mean about non-linear timestream. It's not really  _non-linear_ , but it's easier to call it that because it's not linear compared to anyone else."

The younger Ivy worried her bottom lip as she tried to put the two diagrams together.

The other Ivy sat back proudly. "If your head hurts, don't worry about it. It'll start making more sense as you live it. The Doctor can explain it again too when you meet another late regeneration. Remember, the older she gets, the longer she's known you."

"Wow, okay, right," Ivy said, sitting back in a mirror image of her other self. "I think I get it, but if I think about it too hard it also makes no sense."

Her older self reached out and then abruptly pulled her hand back. "You'll be okay, and one day this'll all be behind you."

"With the fifteenth Doctor?"

"Oh! That reminds me actually. The Doctor probably told you this already, but you shouldn't tell him when you meet a future regeneration or anything about his future. No one's supposed to know. Likewise, he won't tell you anything about meeting other yous, though actually we've all broken that rule."

The younger Ivy opened her mouth to ask more questions when a shout and a bang filtered down the corridor to them.

"Uh oh," the older one said, twisting around in the jumpseat. "She probably dropped something on herself again. She's a bit clumsy this time around." She hopped out of the chair. "I think you'll be going soon anyway. This was a short trip, if I remember right."

"But how long?" the younger Ivy called as her other self went to the doorway. "How long am I jumping?"

But the other one was already gone. And then Ivy blinked and with a jolt she realized she was in another Tardis, this time bathed in blue light with strange metal scaffolding arching above the console.

"Who are you?" someone in a frock coat and cravat asked.


	4. Meeting River Song (11th Jump, 12th - 11th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy meets River Song

"I don't want to hear about that gardener again," Ivy was saying only to realize that the man she was facing was wearing a bow tie and tweed, not the dark blue and red coat of his next incarnation.

"What gardener?" the Eleventh Doctor asked, grinning.

"Nevermind," she said quickly, only for another woman with the most amazing head of curls to raise an eyebrow.

"Who is this, sweetie?" she asked, looking at the Doctor flirtatiously while her hand went to the pistol holstered at her side. Ivy's eyebrows shot up.

"This is Ivy, of course. I'm surprised you don't know her," the Doctor said, adjusting his bow tie. "It's awfully good to see you, Ivy, of course."

"Good to see you too," Ivy replied.

"Oh I've heard of you," the woman said but didn't explain. "So what's this about a gardener?"

"I can't tell you," Ivy said, looking curiously at the curly-haired woman. At that moment Amy and Rory appeared, both stopping short.

"Ivy!" Amy said confusedly. "When did you get hear?"

"Just now," she said at the same time that woman with the gun said: "Why can't you tell?"

"As you'd put it, River, _spoilers_ ," the Doctor intervened, darting around the console. "Ivy's a good friend of mine. Known her longer than anyone else—and that's quite terrifying if I think about. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for gardeners in the future," he added.

"Oh don't," Ivy groaned, rolling her eyes as she followed him to the console. "No wonder you were so suspicious of him."

River slyly looked at the Doctor, tipping her head at Ivy. "So it's true that your companion Ivy isn't in one timeline? I thought that rumor was made up, just like the one about her being from Gallifrey."

"I'm not from Gallifrey!" Ivy said as Amy and Rory came clattering down the stairs. "But the timeline part's true."

"She's not a Time Lord, why would anyone think that?" the Doctor added, and that comment earned him a smack on the arm from Ivy. "Ow!"

"Wow thanks, how could I possibly be mistaken for a Time Lord?" she muttered sarcastically.

"So where _are_ you from?" River asked, watching Ivy and the Doctor interact.

"Earth of course, 1965. I traveled with his first incarnation, the old curmudgeon with plaid pants." She poked the Doctor playfully. "His fashion sense never seems to get much better, but at least he's not so grumpy."

"Hey! I was 450 years old by the time you met me and had never regenerated! Hard to look that good when you're that old!"

"Just means you led a boring life," Ivy argued.

Amy was grinning as she watched them. "You've known him that long really?" she asked eagerly.

"Oh yes, and met nearly every regeneration of him since. Sometimes he's grumpy, sometimes he's goofy, but he's always the Doctor," she said fondly. "This one's the youngest looking by far," she added, popping one thumb at his noticeably unlined face.

"It- It reflects my character," he said, stiffening in protest. Everyone else snorted.

"So you're also traveling with the Doctor?" Ivy asked, turning to River. She eyed the gun at her hip warily.

"Just briefly," River explained. "My timeline and the Doctor's is a bit messed up like yours. Always going backwards compared to him."

"I can relate," Ivy said. "How'd you meet him and how'd that happen?"

"Spoilers, I'm afraid. I know, but he doesn't." River winked and Ivy smiled.

"Don't I know that feeling."

The Doctor groaned as he looked between them. "No one is supposed to know the future about me, and now _two_ people do," he complained.

Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "Can't know everything, Raggedy Man. It's probably good for you."

"Did I mention sometimes he's more arrogant?" Ivy commented, making River roll her eyes.

The Doctor huffed. "Well if you're all going to make fun of me then you can do it outside the Tardis. I've got parts to pick up and there's only one place I can get these—least without having to dig through a rubbish heap."

He grumbled as Ivy reached out and hugged him before anyone could apologize. "I'm sorry Doctor, you know we're only teasing. None of us would be here if not for you, and we love you no matter how grouchy, egotistical, or goofy you are." The Doctor seemed to lose all the air in his double respiratory systems at Ivy's words, and he grudgingly hugged her back very quickly before pulling back sharply and twisting his bowtie. He did not see River or Amy's looks behind his back.

"Well I can hardly quit any of you," he commented, but quietly Rory thought to himself that he very well could. The Doctor could leave him and Amy back on Earth and never return, or never pick up River again from her jail cell, but Ivy at least would always be popping through time. He'd never be quit of her. It was a sobering thought.

"Enough domestics, as you used to say," Ivy said with a laugh. "Where were you going and can I join?"

"Of course!" he said, springing away from her, and just like that he was back to rambling and pulling on levers at the console. River appraised Ivy as she stood near the jumpseat, not sure what to make of her relationship with the Doctor; her thoughts running along similar lines to Rory's. The Tardis shot off into the Vortex, and in just moments they landed with a thump.

The Doctor jumped down the stairs and the Ponds opened the Tardis doors. Ivy waited though with River until the rest of them were out the doors.

"You're in love with him," she said, and River turned slowly, one hip slightly cocked. "I've seen it before, you know, with other companions."

"It's a little different for him and I," River murmured.

Ivy looked unimpressed though, and River felt a small pang in her heart as she considered what Ivy might know of the Doctor's future. River knew she wasn't with the Doctor forever, but he was the best thing in her life and she was going to fight for that.

"He loves all his companions in some way," Ivy continued. "But it's not really the same either."

"He marries me, you know," River felt compelled to add, even though she really did understand what Ivy was saying.

The other time traveler nodded but didn't comment.

"I know I don't get to keep him, I know that, but for the moment I have him and he has me," River said a bit tightly. "I know he cares about me in his own way, and that's enough."

"That's the spirit," Ivy said with a smile. She started to walk to the open doors where just outside the Doctor was regaling the Ponds with a lot of unnecessary detail about the planet they'd landed on.

"You're in love with him too, aren't you?" River called to her, eyes narrowed at her back.

"I love them all a little differently," Ivy admitted unashamedly. "He changes every cell in his body, and each regeneration had a different quirk, different voice, different hand to hold—if he holds your hand at all. Wouldn't want to _marry_ him though." River only looked at her as Ivy turned around. "This is the youngest you've met him, right? But the next time you meet him he'll be younger?"

"For me, yes. He'll meet a younger me next. We're going in reverse to each other."

"Then you'll know what I mean one day," Ivy said mysteriously. She left the Tardis before River could ask about this earlier regeneration she would meet, and she was left to wonder if she would love him differently than the Doctor she had always known, or whether she would even get the chance.


	5. Beggar's Hope (12th Jump, 10th – 8th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy doesn't pop for seven straight days, a new record.

"It's a record!" Ivy yelled, tumbling through the console room doors. She skidded to a stop next to Martha and the Doctor who were standing by the console.

"A record?" Martha asked.

"Seven days! I've been here a whole week!" Ivy was grinning so hard her cheeks might split. Then the Doctor grinned back at her and swung her up into his arms, spinning in place. Martha looked on feeling a twist in her gut.

"That's brilliant! Maybe the time between jumps will get longer? Could possibly if you consider the relative expansion of the physical universe elongating the rotation of the particles of the…" he kept babbling to himself but neither Martha nor Ivy were paying any attention anymore.

"So Martha," Ivy said excitedly, "where do you want to go? This'll be our third trip together in a row!"

It took Martha a few seconds to get back into the rhythm, but she wasn't going to let the Doctor or Ivy throw her off. She was working on this. "Oh, I don't know yet. He said something about a fourth moon?"

"Yes!" the Doctor yelled suddenly, whirling around. "Ohhhhh, you're gonna love it. The Halbadashians see fourteen colors so their market is incredibly colorful, and it's the only place in the world you can get real Gartian crystals—useful for an incredible number of things, but particularly if you like baking—and Halbadashians are also pioneers in handheld machinery. Want that MRI scanner without needing a whole room? You can get it there!" The Doctor waggled his eyebrows enticingly at Martha, and Ivy knew she was sold.

"Sounds amazing to me!" Martha replied.

"Allon-sy!" he cried, and they were off.

* * *

The next day Ivy leapt into the console room half-expecting it to be the same Doctor just at a different point, but Martha was still there holding her new basic-medical scanner (it could pick up 654 different conditions and give exams of 89 different species), and the Doctor looked thrilled to see her again.

"I don't know how you sleep," he admitted, laughing as he flipped a lever up and spun a small top connected to the console.

"I don't know either," Ivy agreed. She went to bed each night after long days with the Doctor and Martha afraid she was only moments away from popping. Each morning she woke with dread that her room would be slightly different and the Doctor at the console a different one. And yet, for seven days in a row, she'd woken up to find the same exact Doctor waiting there, Martha looking eager, and a day of adventure and laughter waiting for her with no abrupt end in sight.

Ivy didn't want to think it as she ate breakfast that day, nor when she walked through the lush undergrowth that wrapped around the equator of this planet. The rest of the planet was uninhabitable, but a small band around the center of the planet was full of incredible wildlife, including some of the most amazing animals in the universe. She didn't want to imagine any of this would end as Martha snapped photos and strange rumbles and squawks rang out around her. She didn't want to think it because she was afraid.

They came back to the Tardis hours later, Martha with her hair full of feathers from a toucan-size bird started molting when it landed on her head until it was the size of a hummingbird. The Doctor was enthusiastically covered in a kind of soupy mud that was supposed to attract a small rabbit-like animal that actually spat acidic nectarine juice. (They never did see it, but Martha and Ivy agreed it was hilarious to watch the Doctor hop around in the underbrush covered in stringy orange mud.) Ivy herself had managed to get a black eye from an encounter with an invisible snake, which hadn't been nearly as terrifying as it sounded because the snake was covered in soft fur and actually purred, letting Ivy wear it like a boa for an hour.

She lingered in the console room long after Martha had gone to bed, watching the Doctor tinker with the Tardis after cleaning off the mud. He tinkered with the wrong thing eventually, and after being shocked by the ship he switched to messing with a box of unfinished parts.

"Can I stay with you?" she blurted out suddenly, blushing brightly as the pinstriped Doctor stopped sonicking to look up.

"Of course!" he said cheerfully. "Could hardly imagine a Tardis without you being around somewhen."

"Some _where_ ," Ivy murmured, and he smiled softly at her for just a moment. There was such longing in her voice that he hoped for her sake the popping had ended. But he'd consulted with the Tardis and his own view of the timelines while Ivy was asleep, and as far as he and the Tardis knew, it wasn't over for Ivy.

Ivy woke up the next morning with that same ball of dread pinning her down, and she squeezed her eyes tightly together. _Please_ , she begged someone, anyone. _Please let it be the same time._

When she opened them she immediately looked at her vanity, seeing the same little clock that counted 16 2/3 hours in a day, forty-seven-and-an-eighth seconds in a minute, and 213.7 days in a year (it was a strange little planet it had come from, and they didn't like whole numbers). Next to it was the Gartian crystal on a string she'd gotten on the last planet a few days ago. There was no dust on it, and the jacket she'd been wearing was still thrown over the bedpost. Ivy flopped back on the bed and felt relief fill her from her belly to her toes.

"I'm still here," she breathed.

Martha had made breakfast, so Ivy ate her Belgian waffles with a side dish of some kind of berry the Doctor swore wasn't generated by a computer facsimile program. It tasted an awful lot like a blueberry except it was the size of an apple, so Ivy was doubtful. She washed up and dressed like she always did, carefully conscious of how this day was like any other (except it _wasn't_ ), and stepped out of her room like normal. But Ivy couldn't help but hesitate as she entered the console room.

She could jump from anywhere, even outside the Tardis. (One fateful time she'd disappeared from a prison, leading to the release of the Doctor because their jailers hoped he'd track down his accomplice, when really Ivy had gone about five hundred years backwards. The story of her escape was now a legend on that planet.) But most of her popping was done in the console room and she didn't know why. She steeled herself just like every morning, just in case, but pasted a grin on and threw herself over the threshold.

"I'm still—"

She was gone.

* * *

"Are you okay?" the Eighth Doctor called through the door, but Ivy couldn't stop crying. She'd never admitted it out loud, not even in her own head, so she was embarrassed to find that none of that mattered. Her deepest desire was still denied to her: she was still popping.

"I thought—I thought I stopped," she gasped finally, after long minutes of incoherent sobbing and the Doctor handwringing in the background. She felt the door creak open slightly despite her body weight against it, but that was hardly going to stop the Doctor.

"Ivy, I'm so sorry," he murmured, and that ridiculous cravat-wearing man wiggled his way through the crack and into the room. He sat down awkwardly next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. She wanted to bury her face in his jacket but her face was all snotty and wet.

"One day," he said, pulling her to him.

Ivy pressed her cheek against his soft curls and blew out a shaky breath. "Yes, one day. I hoped… another day."

He rubbed circles into her back, and they didn't travel anywhere that day, but they were okay with that.


	6. A First For Him (15th Jump, 8th – 2nd)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor learns what happened to Ivy after she fell into the vortex.

It was her fifteenth jump, if she'd been keeping them straight, that it happened. He'd said she would never meet his first incarnation again, so it was inevitable that his second incarnation would be the first to meet _her_  after falling into the vortex. While she hadn't been expecting it in as many words, she'd known this would happen.

He'd jumped about a foot in the air when she appeared near the Tardis doors, taking in a Tardis that had barely changed from the first one she'd stepped foot in.

"Ivy?!" he sputtered, mouth dropping wide open. He'd been about to pull some lever and had frozen hovering over the console, staring at her like she'd appeared with four more heads and a conga line attached to her hips. That may or may not have been a hallucination caused by the atmosphere on that last planet. The eighth Doctor hadn't realized that opium made up a significant portion of the air, which made for a very odd funeral.

"Doctor?" she'd said, taking in another new version of the Doctor she hadn't met. He had a bowl cut of dark hair, and a flexible mouth that made several different expressions before he finally settled on bewildered.

"But that's impossible!" he cried.

"You always say that," she said, touching her floating, blue dyed hair and noticing how similar his clothing was to the first Doctor. He still had plaid pants on, but the pattern was bigger this time, and he had an actual bowtie as opposed to that ribbon. She wanted to make a joke about it since she knew he sported a bowtie again, but the way he was staring at her made her pause.

"What? But how? You can't be-!" The Doctor sputtered for a while before giving up trying to ask questions and darting over. He poked her quite hard in the arm, making her jerk back. "But that's not possible. I saw you fall! Straight into the time vortex!"

"Doctor, you haven't…?" Ivy faltered, realizing now that when he'd said 'impossible' it had nothing to do with her outrageous hairstyle or the mourning romper she was wearing, which was very traditional on Alpha Targeris. Suddenly she knew how the eleventh Doctor had felt when the burden of explaining had fallen on him, and then she felt even worse because she was about to lie. "Which regeneration are you?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, affronted.

"I mean, are you… did the old you, with the white hair and the plaid pants turn into you? This is your second face?"

"Yes indeed! The me you knew got old!" he answered, looking confused and exasperated, but also growing excited. "And I turned into this! Bit younger I must say, which is nice. I rather like the hair. But it's hardly relevant. You're alive! And you don't seem surprised at all."

Ivy put a smile on her face that only took slightly more effort than normal. "This must be the first time you meet me, then. I've already met you a bunch of times!"

He looked intrigued. "You mean you fell into the vortex and jumped through time? But then to get back here…" his look turned suspicious, and he darted out the Tardis doors to look around. "There must be another me here."

"No, no," Ivy said quickly, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him back inside. " _I'm_ jumping. I don't know how, and it all happens very suddenly, but I'm connected to the Tardis you said."

" _I_  said?" he repeated, eyebrow raised and mouth twitching.

"Yes  _you_. Another you."

"Which other me?" he demanded.

"I can't tell you that!" she said immediately. "It's your future!"

That seemed to mollify him for the moment, and Ivy tried to relax and smooth down her luridly colored hair, which was starting to list to the left while he talked. "Connected to the Tardis? Meaning what? Can you leave her or are you trapped inside? A projection?" He fiddled with a few levers as thought about to test how three-dimensional she was.

"Of course I can leave," Ivy said, dropping on to the jumpseat, comforted by the shape of the room, so very like her first Tardis. "I just pop between times in the Tardis. So when I disappear don't panic; I'm just popping off to see another you."

"And the fall then? You've got to tell me all about that! How did you survive? Now wait!" he jumped in suddenly. "Don't try to remember the vortex itself, might explode your head."

"I know," Ivy said, dreading what she was about to say next, but steeling herself. "I don't actually remember falling. I mean… I saw you in the Tardis and then… then I was with another you."

That wasn't true, actually. In fact, when Ivy had first jumped she hadn't remembered, probably from a mix of shock and the vortex nearly killing her, but the memories of her last moments in proper time had come back over the course of some terrible nightmares. She rather wished they hadn't because none of the Doctors she had met had known the truth of what happened, and it was really better that way, even if it necessitated lying.

"Ah well," he said, looking a bit disappointed before brightening up. "Probably for the best. Have you heard me play yet? Wonder if I play any instruments later on half as well as I do now?" He pulled out a recorder from where he'd been fingering it in his jacket. Ivy breathed out and settled firmly into the chair.

"No I haven't! You play the recorder?"

He started playing a jumpy little tune, and even though he was pretty good, she wasn't listening to music at all.


	7. Jelly Babies (17th Jump, 4th - 12th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief glimpse of one of the messes the Doctor gets Ivy into.

"I can't get him to—oh! Ivy!" Clara jumped as she turned the corner and ran smack into Ivy, who was covered in some kind of greenish jelly that looked, at first glance, to be covered in glitter. "What is that?"

"Jelly babies."

"What?" Clara laughed, keeping a good step back so none of the goo would get on her. The glitter was possibly sugar or starch, now that she was really looking at it. And yes, if she squinted she could see some of the shapes of jelly babies that had melted together creating a gelatin coating over Ivy legs.

"It's the unprocessed stuff they make jelly babies out of."

"What were you doing in a jelly baby factory?" Clara had to ask. Ivy didn't look too thrilled to have been there.

"Well I was with the Doctor, so it's obvious, isn't it?" With a hopping stride because the hardening jelly partially locked her knees together, Ivy started down the hall.

"Do you want some help?" Clara asked, mostly to be polite because the gelatin was clearly solidifying and it wasn't going to be pretty getting that off.

"More importantly," interrupted the Doctor, whose sharp gaze was narrowed thoughtfully on Ivy, "how did you come to be covered in jelly babies gelatin?"

"Don't you know?" Ivy snapped over her shoulder before closing her eyes tightly. She reached out and touched the wall on her right.

"You don't have to think so loud!" the Doctor yelped, touching his head. "The Tardis can hear you just fine. Your door is the one on your right. But really, I don't remember anything about falling into vats of jelly babies or whatever happened."

Ivy groaned and opened her door, but she didn't immediately hop in. "I guess you weren't there for the good part then. Did you at least deal with that mechanical rat-maker?"

"You mean the Sylvanus man?" the Doctor asked after a moment to think. He crossed his arms when he realized what she was referring to. "Those weren't mechanical rats. No more mechanical than a clock is a computer! Honestly, less developed species should really be more careful about how they talk, otherwise you'd have greatly offended the Sylvanusy."

"I _did_ offend him," Ivy grated, before hopping inside her room and slamming the door.

"Well, no surprise then what happened to her," the Doctor commented to himself. Clara shot him a look, but he rolled his eyes. "She pops off all the time, no reason to get all worried. Sylvanus don't kill anyway; they're very dedicated to their… well, you'd probably call it A.I. but it's not really artificial. Your mind's too simple to grasp it."

Clara interrupted him before he could start on again about her general ignorance of random cultures in the universe and the size of the human brain. "Do you still like jelly babies?"

His eyebrow shot up but he let the conversation change course. "Well of course, but don't have quite the tooth for them like I used to. Used to keep a bag on me always, sometimes two." He waved his hands though, dismissing the topic as he headed back to the console room. "Not anymore though. Now, maybe a low-gravity planet would be fun, eh? Especially since the gravitational change is going to be a surprise to everyone else!"


	8. War Doctor (20th Jump, ? - War)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy meets the most burdened Doctor of them all.

Ivy walked through the entryway to the console room thinking about how similar popping was to apparating like in Harry Potter (she was really looking forward to seeing a future Doctor so she could finish the series), when she was faced with a brand new Doctor.

"Don't tell me!" she cried, flinging out a hand. The older man with the grey mustache and beard stopped short at the sight of her. "Let me guess… sixteenth?"

"What?" he said in an impressive growl.

"Are you the sixteenth? I've only gone as far as the fifteenth you right now, Doctor, but I'm always on the look out for more." Ivy snickered at the joke except this Doctor didn't crack a smile.

"You really ought to leave," he said, giving her his back. "This is not a good place for you."

"Doctor?" Ivy asked, her smile slipping off her face. That outfit, had she seen it before? "Where are we? What's going on?"

"I suppose it's entirely possible you would come here, but I'd hoped not." He was talking more to himself as he knelt down on creaky limbs to rummage through something.

"Let me help with that," Ivy said hurriedly, dropping to her knees beside him. "Is this… oh no," she whispered, clutching what looked like a pink muffler very hard as she stared at him. "Are you… is this your last?"

"What are you talking about?" he spat out, shooting her a deeply annoyed look. "If you know what's best for yourself you'll leave—oh, why do I bother, of course you won't. Can't. Bah."

She reached out to touch his face, but he drew back sharply.

"Doctor…" Ivy watched as he crossed the room, lacking all the agility his other regenerations had with the exception of one. "How long have you been in this regeneration?" she asked.

He ignored her, flipping switches on the console.

The Doctor wasn't eternal, despite all the regenerations. There would be some point where he'd wear down, where millennia would catch up or old enemies would finally win. Ivy hadn't seen him anywhere near that point, but she didn't speculate on why, and she didn't want to imagine he wouldn't always be there somewhere. Maybe he found a way to block her from jumping to his later selves, or maybe the Tardis did, or maybe when she was no longer jumping the paradox effect kept her away. Either way, the furthest regeneration she'd met so far was the fifteenth, and she had been far from dying.

But this old Doctor walked and grouched just like his first regeneration. That was the one that lived through his family's death, his exile, stealing the Tardis, all things that aged him beyond any of the other regenerations until this one. The Doctor had been through a lot of troubles and trials in his life, but the only other thing that stood out…

"Doctor, it's the war, isn't it?"

His head snapped around. "Well of course it is. Now there's a bunker in one of those rooms down that corridor. I don't know which one, just find it and stay there. Not likely those Daleks will destroy this old girl, but if the Tardis takes damage I don't want you banging around in here!"

The Doctor whirled around again and went back to the box he'd been sorting through for parts. Ivy watched him, knowing he wouldn't like to see the pity in her gaze. His shoulders were slumped under a weight she couldn't do anything about.

"Let me get you a cup of tea at least," she offered.

He sighed and looked about to refuse, but he glanced up at her and then rolled his eyes. "Be quick about it, if you must." But she thought she heard a gruff, muttered "thank you" as she left.


	9. Pre-Pishalver (25th Jump, 5th – 9th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ivy and the Doctor go to an oddball wedding.

"Well you've got good timing!" the Doctor cried as Ivy stood in the wardrobe room of the Tardis. She'd just been making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to appease a "god" of a tiny planet. Instead of being bewildered at the sudden change of scenery, Ivy just sighed. She was used to it now.

"For what?" she asked, still holding the knife covered in peanut butter.

"A wedding!"

The Doctor was, of course, wearing the same thing he always wore in this regeneration: white sweater and off-white suit jacket with orange trim, complete with striped pants. He wasn't wearing the matching hat yet, but he'd already donned the celery and was currently pinning his collar buttons so the question marks were upfront and visible.

Ivy was still wearing baggy jeans she'd gotten on the last trip to the 90s on Earth and a shirt covered in purple leaves from their run from the savage guinea pigs of the planet into the arms of the "god". So far the day hadn't been going so well. Putting down the knife, the next wardrobe she opened was packed with full-length white gowns.

"You didn't say who was getting married," Ivy said slowly as she took in the rack of ivory, cream, snow, eggshell, and every other variation of white that existed, and a few that only did for species that saw a different light spectrum than humans.

"It's a Frethian wedding," he said like that explained it all, adjusting the hat on his head. Ivy looked at him blankly over her shoulder.

"A white gown signifies a blank canvas," he continued, now snapping his jacket smartly.

"Why is the bride a blank canvas?"

"The bride?" he paused, looking at her bemused. "Oh right, Earth traditions. On Earth the bride wears white, but on Frethia what I suppose would be the spouses-to-be, though they aren't dimorphic and there are three individuals in the ceremony, wears black and all the guests wear white. Good thing I have this suit."

"I see," Ivy said, taking in the gowns again. After some consideration she chose the least bridal looking one of the lot and took it to a small room to change into. The Tardis helped by providing hair clips and spray as she pulled her hair into a French twist to keep it back and slipped on some low heels.

"You look lovely!" he exclaimed when she came back out, and offered his arm. Apparently in the time she'd changed they'd landed right outside the party.

The ceremony was not nearly as dull as a human wedding. It included a ritual dance that was something like jazz tap dancing with castanets to a low club beat, and then pouring frothing liquid over each other's heads while yodeling (singing for the Frethian people). Ivy sipped her drink the whole time and watched with wide eyes, the Doctor eagerly whispering to her the history of their people and why this wedding between three rival factions was such a big deal.

The only real surprise though, besides the holographic lion advertising what looked like ping-pong balls on the napkins, was the cheering. Or rather, the side effect of the cheering.

The reason all the guests wore white to a wedding was because of one native feature of the planet: the flowers.

They looked perfectly normal to Ivy, and she'd given them no notice when they'd arrived, but as she learned they had a unique defense mechanism. When a very loud noise happened nearby, the flowers would bloom, causing them to spray a shower of oils to coat their enemies, making them easy to spot for predators. For the lone human at the wedding, this meant an unexpected multicolored bath.

So after linking arms and dancing their way to the garden entrance, everyone fell into a hush as they stepped inside. They shushed each other and barely moved in their seats at the vows were said, and Ivy noticed how close the vines and flowers grew to the pews, hanging over the far corners of the venue. She almost reached out to touch one bloom before the Doctor stopped her and put a finger to his lips.

Finally the Frethians shared a kind of wedding kiss (they had eight arms each and there were three of them, so it was more like a massive grope) and all the guests started cheering, stomping, clapping, and hooting. It was so deafeningly loud all the flowers burst into bloom at once, dousing the entire party in a rainbow of colors. All the white outfits immediately were stained in vibrant blues, reds, greens, and yellows, mixing and dripping into oranges, dark purples, and eventually browns that were not particularly beautiful for humans to look at.

Ivy had been sitting at the edge of the party right beside the flowers, so she got a face full of the stuff along with a healthy coating all over. She sat there trying to remember why this was fun, while the Doctor looked perfectly delighted to be covered in flower oils, and even happier when a pair of castanets were tossed his way. "Dance?" he asked.

"No thanks," Ivy muttered, letting him go off and enjoy the party. Her hair was soaked and dripping on her shoulders and she could feel the oils from the flowers oozing down places they had no right to be. She needed a drink at the bar.

In retrospect, the Doctor might have mentioned something about not getting water on this planet, or maybe what looked like water on this planet was different, but Ivy wasn't sure and after three small glasses of what she was told was definitely not water she couldn't remember anymore. All she knew was that the world was wonderful, weddings with castanet-dancing and octo-armed people were fantastic, and the Doctor looked brilliant in about forty shades of brown. She told him so, and he made her sit down while he sonicked her.

"Uh oh," he murmured, touching her wrist and then the side of her ear for some reason.

"What?" she asked, in a pleasant state of lethargy.

"You've been drinking Mylkel. I told you to specifically ask for Earthian-safe drinks, right?"

"Hm? Water? I didn't have any, you said so. And this looks like… like soy milk," she said, holding up her glass. Some of it was dripping on her and she couldn't figure out why until he righted the glass and put it on the table. "But don't worry, I'm fine."

"Okay, back to the Tardis."

"But the party…"

"That's quite alright, it'll go on for another ten hours yet," he said, shooing people out of the way. They exited the garden and back through the party hall and into the Tardis where the Doctor propped her up on the console. "Just a moment and I'll get the remedy. Won't help for tonight, but you won't have all the nasty side effects tomorrow. Most of them, that is."

He walked away muttering about necessary ingredients, and Ivy wondered what in the universe he was talking about. Remedies? She was totally fine. If the room would just hold still for a moment she'd even stand up straight.

"I've got it!" the Doctor said a few minutes later, finding Ivy across the room with one hand on the wall.

"Stop moving," she told it, glancing up when he thrust the vial in her face. "What's that?"

"To sober up. Mylkel's basically alcoholic to humans."

"What?" she repeated, looking around. "I'm totally fine, this is just a milk drink. They told me so."

"It's _Mylkel_ not milk," he chastised, but Ivy wouldn't be swayed.

"No, I'm perfectly fine. I know what it's like to be drunk but I'm not. Everything is crystal clear, even though you didn't take the parking break off so we're still moving."

"Parking break?" he sputtered. "We're not moving and you most certainly are drunk, in a sense of the word," the Doctor argued, holding out the vial again. "Just drink this and you'll be fine."

"I'm not drunk!" Ivy protested before realizing she was not in the same place as before.

"Oh sure, and Mylkel doesn't have the same effects as alcohol at all," said in a Northern accent.


	10. Pishalver (26th Jump, 5th – 9th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion to the mylkel saga.

"I'm not drunk!" Ivy protested loudly, swaying in place. She grasped the edge of the console to stay upright and realized the empty white Tardis had been replaced with a busier, orange-tinted one. This one was waving and gyrating strangely to Ivy instead of just sleepily rotating like the other Tardis.

"Oh sure, and Mylkel doesn't have the same effects as alcohol at all," said in a Northern accent. The Doctor was standing on the other side of the console with his arms crossed imperiously.

"You didn't tell me it would do anything to me. Other you. With the hat." She waved vaguely at her head, but he rolled his eyes. He knew exactly which regeneration she was talking about because when she popped away arguing with him he'd remembered thinking that this would be a headache for a future self. The headache had arrived a few centuries later.

"Come on, to bed with you." He tucked an arm around her waist and guided her down the corridor. She was still a little wet with the oils turning into a sludgy brown from the trip to the Frethian planet. "And I _did_ tell you not to drink what they were drinking. Doesn't anyone listen?"

"How could I hear you over those castanet clapper things?" she asked, before attempting to redirect him. "It's the second left."

"This is the first left we've reached, and I don't trust you to count anyway in your state. And the castanet has a proud history, totally unrelated to the Frethian—"

"Is that Ivy?" Rose asked, appearing from the doorway to her room with her toothbrush stuck in her mouth and her pajamas on.

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed.

"Are you Melanie? No wait, blonde… Rose?" Ivy asked, looking at Rose. "How do you keep track, Doctor? I should keep a chart of all your companions."

"I'm Rose. You don't remember?" Rose frowned, taking in Ivy's tie-dyed state and heavy leaning on the Doctor. "Are you drunk?"

"Yes, she is," the Doctor said smartly. "And don't mind if she forgets you, I've had a lot of repeat first meetings with her," he chuckled.

"How come she's drunk and painted?" Rose asked, looking concerned.

"Frethian wedding," the Doctor called over his shoulder.

"You should have seen his white suit, Rose. That silly umbrella didn't protect him much. Not sure how you're gonna clean that," Ivy giggled, before squinting and correcting herself. "How did you clean it, actually?"

"They also drink Mylkel at celebrations," the Doctor continued on to Rose, ignoring Ivy's interruption. " 'Cept on humans it's got this effect. She's gonna have a bad nose bleed tomorrow."

"When did you go to a Frethian wedding?" Rose asked, sounding a bit hurt. "I didn't even feel the Tardis move."

"Couple regenerations back," he called, turning the corner. Rose followed them a ways until a door materialized in the wall with a stylized Ivy vine on it.

Inside was a room full of trinkets, many whizzing or blinking at their entrance. The bed had a thick gold duvet on it and a lava lamp on the bedside table, but nearly everything else was alien. There were photos of strange planets and people, bobbing rocks and glowing knickknacks. It was an eclectic collection that somehow represented just how many strange places the Doctor went.

"This is Ivy's room?" Rose asked curiously, looking at all the strange little things she's collected.

"Yes, it's my room!" Ivy said, half falling on the bed when the Doctor let her drop the last few inches. "I don't remember getting that though," she said, looking curiously down at a fuzzy blanket at the foot of the bed that was humming.

"Don't think I recognize that either," the Doctor said, glancing at it too.

"Probably a future me got it, accidentally brought it back to a past you, and left it here without you noticing," Ivy commented casually. Rose had to pause a second to work out what she'd meant.

The Doctor sighed. "Nevermind that, you're gonna want this. You'll only have a nosebleed tomorrow if you do."

"I don't want a nosebleed," Ivy complained, but she took the vial the Doctor held out.

"Bet you don't want the feeling of ants crawling all over you or your eyebrows falling off, now do you? So drink that and you'll be fine tomorrow." He watched her as she drank the whole thing, tipping it back like a shot.

"Wow," Ivy said, blinking like there was a bright light. "I already feel less giggly." She glanced around and saw Rose again. "Oh, I'm sorry for not recognizing you immediately," she said. "It's hard enough when I'm not accidentally drinking."

"It's okay," Rose replied.

"I just meet so many people I never see again that it's hard to remember," Ivy admitted, looking down. She put down the medicine glass shakily and squeezed her hands together.

"Enough of that. _You,_ " the Doctor interrupted, pointing at Rose, "go wash up or whatever. I don't want Jackie at my throat about holes in human teeth or whatever sweets do to you. And _you_ ," he said, switching his finger to Ivy, "need to wash off and finish your drink."

"You were more fun when you had the Mylkel," Ivy complained.

"Mylkel doesn't affect me like it does you," the Doctor retorted, and got up to leave rather quickly. Ivy stumbled to her feet immediately.

"I didn't mean it like that. You're great fun! Why, when I last saw this you…" She paused for a moment and checked his face. "Wait, have you been to that place where it's illegal to wear matching camo pattern, and yet everything is camo?"

"Marakish III?"

"No, the other one."

"Nope, but I guess I'll be there."

"Yeah and you'll see me then. Don't know about between now and then though," Ivy continued, thinking back. "I just meet so many of you and we always go somewhere weird. Like that place that put ketchup on fish and chips."

"That was America."

"Weird places," Ivy mused, sitting back down on the bed. As the Doctor closed the door on Ivy's room, Rose saw her slip off the smeared brown shawl around her shoulders and hang it on a new hook by her bed. Another souvenir, it seemed.

"You sure she doesn't need some water, or something?" Rose asked as the Doctor and her walked back to the console room.

"Nah, she'll be fine. Mylkel's less dangerous than your alcohol. Gonna have to go somewhere slower paced next though."

"Well you did promise that beach planet," Rose suggested, eyebrows going up. She could desperately use a tan, and surely Ivy could use a day off after partying so hard the night before, or whatever the equivalent in time was.

The Doctor gave Rose a knowing look, but he plugged in the coordinates nonetheless. "Go get some rest and I'll wake you when we're there."


	11. Banging Noise (28th Jump, 12th - 10th)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the Doctor has no idea the kind of messes he and Ivy get into.

There was a constant banging noise somewhere in the Tardis. The Doctor, this one in pinstripes and sideburns, was poking around in every storage closet, cupboard, and nook he could find to discover the source. Donna was out shopping for something or another in London, and the Doctor had thought to start repairs on the ship when the Tardis started banging at him.

Or maybe, it was something else.

"Doctor! Doctor!" he heard faintly. "Help me!"

The banging was getting louder as he walked down the hallway and into the library. He was pretty sure he hadn't been in this particular library since his eighth incarnation, but he didn't remember there being a shaking trunk. The banging started up again, making the whole thing tremble, and a muffled voice from inside was shouting for him.

"Doctor! Get me out of here!"

It took four tries with the Sonic to get the lock undone, since it hadn't been made from any Earthian metal despite looking like a typical storage trunk, and when he lifted the lid there was Ivy, looking frazzled and annoyed but unharmed.

"How'd you end up in there?" he asked.

She shot him a dirty look, but the Doctor couldn't think of a single explanation.

"It's not _my_ fault," he said as she huffed and pulled herself out of the trunk, refusing any help.

"Sure it isn't," she muttered with deadly sarcasm.

"Well it's not a past me!" he said instead, wondering what in the universe he was doing in the future. "Hardly fair to blame me for something I haven't done yet."

"I don't care if it's fair, do you know how long I was yelling? A long time, that's what! _Oh it'll be perfectly safe, Ivy_ , you said, _They'll never find you in that trunk, Ivy_ , _I'll have you out in a jiffy_ ," she repeated, and by the lethal look she was shooting him he was never to say those actual words.

"I'm sure I would've gotten you out soon," the Tenth Doctor tried, but Ivy was hearing none of it.

"I don't care. I need a shower, a nap, and to not look at your face—whichever face!—" she added before he could protest, "for awhile. Goodnight."

"It's 2pm, who's going to bed?" Donna asked from the doorway, shopping bags in hand and looking annoyed when Ivy stomped right by her.

"Companion, I'll meet you later if at all. Right now, _I_ have spent the last hour squished into a trunk!" she half-shrieked.

The Doctor looked at Donna and shrugged, then took out his sonic and buzzed around the trunk for a few moments. "It's a dimensional trunk!" he called out to Ivy, but she was already gone. "Bigger on the inside. Wouldn't shrink to trunk-size until I opened it."

"Don't think that's what she's upset about. Reckon no one would want to be stuck in a trunk," Donna said.

"But I didn't do it!" the Doctor complained.

"I have no idea who she was or why you put her in a trunk, but knowing you, you probably deserved that!" Donna said smartly, turning on her heel. "Now where else are we going today?"


End file.
